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Fix a Broken Pin on an IC Chip

About: Jack passed away May 20, 2018 after a long battle with cancer. His Instructables site will be kept active and questions will be answered by our son-in-law, Terry Pilling. Most of Jack's instructables are tu...
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Have you ever broken a pin on an IC chip?

Don't throw it away.

Don't pay a ridiculous price for overnight shipping.

Don't put your project on hold for 2-4 days for slow shipping.

Why not try to fix the broken pin? You have nothing to lose. I accidentally bent a pin on my Attiny85 chip and when I tried to straighten it it broke. This instructable shows how I fixed it.

Step 1: Soldering on the New Pin

You need ways to hold both the wire and the chip securely. A couple vices or a helping hands will work.

Cut a length of 22 gauge wire, mine was about two inches long.

Strip off about 1/2 inch of insulation and carefully lay the wire across what is left of the pin.

Solder the wire onto the broken pin.

Remove the chip and the wire from their holders, and cut the wire to the same length as the other pins.

Step 2: Finishing Up and Using the Chip

Carefully bend the pin so it will fit into a perfboard.

Do this before trying to put the chip into a socket.

Step 3:

It would be very hard to solder to the new pin without melting the solder holding the pin to the chip.

For this reason I recommend putting the chip in a socket instead of trying to solder it into your project.